Goddammit
what is so cool about Che?okay, he traveled all over
Patagonia on a motorcycleand studied medicineand went to
a leper colonyand to Congo, Guatemala, Cuba, Bolivia the
guy cared about the poor.

But
what happened?

he
oversaw executions
very efficient executionsand praised violence… his own
words

and
I only think of that aphorism about how you can fight for peace.

Now
people worship him these days…

but
not Abimael Guzmán of the Sendero
Luminosothough he and Che and Mao and Pol Pot and Lenin and
Kim Il Sungthought it was okay to kill

for
the cause

they
all once cared about the poor they
all did

and
as for me

I
do not cry over Hiroshima and Timothy McVeigh and no one puts
my face on a T-shirt.

Caleb
Powell(http://calebpowell.wordpress.com)
was born in Taiwan. After graduating from the University of
Washington he returned to study Mandarin and teach English. He
has also lived and worked in South Korea, Guam, Thailand, The
United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Brazil, and Argentina. A Canadian
small press, Good
Cheer, published
his guidebook, The
World is a Class. His
writing is published or forthcoming in decomP,
descant, Drunken Boat, elimae, Errant Parent, flashquake,
Monkeybicycle, The Pedestal Magazine, Word Riot, Yankee Pot
Roast and
others.